Dewei Shen
Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center for East Asian Studies
CESTA Digital Humanities Graduate Fellow (2021-22)
Department:
Center for East Asian Studies
CESTA Digital Humanities Graduate Fellowship Project:
A Different Kind of Chinese Empire: The City Networks of Chu (c. 350 – c. 100 BCE)
My overall research focus is on explaining the first wave of imperiogenesis in China from the mid-fourth through the second century BCE. In this DH project, by drawing on a wealth of new archaeological and manuscript evidence, I analyze the extended Chu city networks mainly in South Central China to explore how and why the Chu Empire allowed a higher level of regional autonomy to develop—even when it was under great pressure to politically and militarily reconfigure itself.